


A Dream to Build a Kiss On

by JJBashir



Series: The Aislinn MacMurdo Chronicles [4]
Category: seaQuest, seaQuest DSV
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 02:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJBashir/pseuds/JJBashir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim and Aislinn's first Valentine's Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dream to Build a Kiss On

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in 1998. Headcanon note: Tim's middle name has always been Andrew. Don't ask me why, it just IS.

_Friday, February 9_

 

"So, whatcha gonna get her?" Warrant officer Miguel Ortiz asked his best friend.

"I dunno," Lt. Tim O'Neill muttered. They were chatting on line four, during a lull in the activity on the Bridge of the Deep Submergence Vessel, seaQuest.

"You gotta get her something, buddy," Miguel said.

Tim frowned as his eyes swept over his console. "Mig, I've never had a girlfriend this serious before--much less one on Valentine's Day. Besides--she was MARRIED. I have to make it something really--spectacular. Something HE would have never though of." HE was referring to one Oliver Hay, now deceased for the last four years, and Tim's girlfriend's late husband.

"No more dolphins," Ortiz said firmly.

"She likes them--"

"EVERYTHING you've given her has dolphins all over it, Tim," Ortiz said. "Hey, aren't you due for a day pass?"

Tim thought for a moment. "Yeah--I am." Then his shoulders slumped. "She's NOT--we already talked about going OUT--"

"But, I could go help you find something really nice for her," Miguel said patiently. "I've got a day pass of my own coming up Saturday."

Tim's eyes lit up. "Would you? You know a heck of a lot more about this Valentine's Day crap than I do."

Mig chuckled. "No sweat, buddy. Besides--then you'll OWE me a favor."

 

"I have to go WHERE?" Lt. Aislinn MacMurdo was standing in front of her captain, Nathan Bridger, and her XO, Commander Jonathan Ford.

"It says here that Secretary McGath himself requested your presence at this conference, Lieutenant," Ford said, reading a sheet of paper in his hand. "Seems you've managed to turn yourself into one of the UEO's foremost experts on acoustical engineering."

Linn wanted to scream. "I'm honored, sir," she said, "truly I am, but--" She bit her lip. She shouldn't even mention it.

"Yes, MacMurdo?" Bridger asked. "What--you didn't have plans for next week, did you?"

Linn sighed. "As a matter of fact, sir," she said, a hint of her Scottish brogue slipping in, "aye, I did."

Bridger clucked apologetically. The whole boat knew that she had plans, and with whom she had them. "I'm afraid that your plans have to take a backseat to the UEO, Lieutenant. You know them---the folks that sign your **paycheck**?"

Aislinn sighed. "Aye, sir," she said wearily. "I'll be ready to leave within the hour."

 

"You have to go WHERE?" Tim exclaimed later on that evening. They were sitting in his quarters--him on the bed, her on the floor.

"I have to go to this STUPID conference in Pearl Harbor," she said sulkily. "THIS week."

"But--but you can't!" Tim sputtered. "We had Wednesday--"

"Tell that to McGath," she snapped. Then her face softened as she watched him recoil. "Och, Tim, I'm sorry," she said, touching his knee with her hand. "I shouldn't snap at ye like that. Isn't your fault."

He slid off the bed, and sat next to her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her shoulder. "It's just not fair, Linn," he said. "The first time I've got a girl on Valentine's Day, and she gets duty call."

She sighed. "Think I like it, Timothy?" she asked. Then she snuggled closer in his embrace. "Tisn't fair, Tim," she said. "I'm off to one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I have to leave the man I love behind."

Tim grinned. "I still get goosebumps when you say that," he admitted.

She lifted her head up to gaze into his dark eyes. "When I say what?"

He kissed her once softly. "When you say you love me."

She smiled. "I'm going to miss you so much, _eudail_ ," she said, calling him by their pet name for each other.

Tim hugged her tight. "I don't wanna think about it anymore," he said.

 

_Wednesday, February 14_

 

The tall brunette walked along the beach at Pearl Harbor. All around her, couples were holding hands, gazing at the sunset, and giving each other lovey-dovey looks.

Aislinn Elizabeth MacMurdo thought she was going to be sick.

 

The tall brunet sat at the console, watching message after message come in for boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives, and watched various people gaze at each other lovey-dovey.

Timothy Andrew O'Neill thought he was going to be sick.

 

Tim went back to his quarters at the end of his duty shift. He flipped through his audio disc collection, until he found the disc labeled 'LINNIE'. He popped into the player, and grabbed the remote. He kicked off his boots, slipped his uniform off, and slipped his grey sweats on. He placed his glasses on the night stand and lay back on the bed. 'I wonder what she's doing right now?' he thought, looking out of his porthole at the water in the aquatubes.

 

Linn went back to her room on the fifth floor of the Pearl Harbor Hilton. She slipped her uniform off, and wrapped her green silk robe on. She grabbed her portable disc player, and the audio disc labeled 'TIM' out of her bag. She took the headphones and lay back on the bed, and placed her glasses on the nightstand next to her. 'Wonder what he's up to right now?' she thought.

 

Tim hit the play button on his remote.

Linn hit the play button on her player.

 

_"Give me a kiss to build a dream on, and my imagination will drive upon that kiss._  
 _Sweetheart, I ask no more than this, a kiss to build a dream on...."_

 

Tim smiled as Louie Armstrong sang. 'A kiss to build a dream on'....Linn's kisses were all like dreams. Tim still remembered the first time his ever pressed his lips to hers, on a blustery fall day in a house outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. She still tasted of honey and ginger and smelt like spring lilacs. He closed his eyes and smiled, lost in his memories.

Linn smiled as she heard the song. She thought back to the first day she had ever kissed Tim...the fire crackling on the hearth; the woodsy, musky scent that lingered in the hollow of Tim's throat; the softness of his lips against hers. She smiled and turned the volume up a little.

 

_"Give me a kiss before you leave me, and my imagination will feed my hungry heart,_  
 _Leave me one thing before we part, a kiss to build a dream on."_

 

Tim reached under his pillow and pulled out her letters...they always found their way under his pillow when she was gone. He didn't want to read them...just feel them under his hands. To look at her firm, sloping script, to catch the faintest hint of her perfume on them. He slipped one out--his favorite. It was all about how much she hated Basic Training...and her dream. The one she kept having, about the time they had said goodbye in Scotland. When he had kissed her on the tarmac, under the roar of the helicopter that was taking him from her. He smiled again. He hadn't hidden from her in that kiss what he had hidden from himself---that he was already hopelessly in love.

Linn touched her fingers to her neck. The crystal dolphin that was around her neck was the first present Tim ever gave her--in his first letter to her. She smiled when he talked about how much he missed her, how he would turn around to tell her something, to realize she wasn't really there. She remembered how much she had cried the moment the helicopter had lifted of the tarmac. She had returned that kiss of his with every ounce of passion her poor little heart could muster up...so he would know that she would miss him just as much as he was telling her he would miss her.

 

_"When I'm alone with my fancies, I'll be with you;_  
 _Weaving romances, making believe they're true...."_

 

Tim sighed. He couldn't sleep at night. He'd grown so accustomed to her soft breathing next to him at night, that he literally had to wrap his arms around his pillow and imagine her there, lying in his arms, before he could even relax. She was so open, so giving, baring her passion and her soul to him in a way that Tim couldn't believe possible. Fairy tales couldn't even be as good as him and Aislinn were--he even missed her incessant teasing and bickering, because he knew she never meant it. One second, she would be ribbing him, then the next, she would lock her lips to his in the most soul shattering kiss he had even known...until the next one.

Linn sighed. She closed her eyes as she imagined Tim's hands gently stoking her back, lulling her to sleep. His soft kisses against her hair, when he thought she was sleeping. The way he would shrug with his arms around her, pulling her a little bit closer to him. His gentle mumbling in French while he was sleeping. She'd been married, and what she had with her husband didn't couldn't compare with what she and Tim shared every moment of every day together.

 

_"Oh, give me your lips for just a moment, and my imagination will make that moment live,_  
 _Give me what you can alone can give,_  
 _A kiss to build a dream on."_

 

The wink across the bridge.

The hand brushed absently against her hair.

The hushed conversations in the middle of the night.

The glorious feeling that you were--

\---Totally, completely adored.

 

Tim sat up, slipped his shoes on, and headed for the mess hall. The vid-phone was bound to be free this time of night.

 

Linn tied her robe sash tight and put her slippers on, and she walked into the other room, where the vid-phone was.

 

He called the Hilton.

She called seaQuest, using Tim's passcode.

 

The line was busy, the operator said. "Shit."

Tim's code was in use. "Hell."

 

Tim punched in the Hilton's number again.

The phone rang. Linn hit the receive button.

 

Bright green met chestnut brown.

 

"Hi," he said, his smile filling the screen. "I didn't mean to wake you."

She smiled back. "Ye dinnae wake me, Tim," she said quietly. "I was just thinkin' about ye."

He grinned sheepishly. "Me too," he said. "Gad, I miss you." He saw her still holding the disc player. "Whatcha listening to?" he asked.

She hit the rewind button once, then pulled the headphone out and hit play.

Tim was amazed. "I was just listening to that song," he said in wonderment as Louie filled the room with his gravely voice.

Her eyes opened wide. "I ALWAYS play this song when I'm missin' you," she said.

Tim's eyes widened as well. "Me too," he whispered. "I guess I owe you a dance to this when you get back."

Her eyes narrowed. "Ye owe me a damn sight more than a dance, Mr. O'Neill," she growled.

Tim laughed. "A kiss to build a dream on?" he asked archly.

Aislinn touched his face on the screen. "I'd be content with a dream to build a kiss on," she said quietly.

Tim kissed his fingers, then pressed them to Linn's image on the screen. "You're the only dream I want, Aislinn," he whispered.

She smiled as the double meaning of his statement sunk in. "I love you, Tim," she said.

"I love you too, Aislinn. What time is it there?" he asked.

She glanced to the clock on the corner of the screen. "11:58 PM."

He smiled. "Good. It's not to late to wish you a happy Valentine's Day," he said. "Then he sighed. "I forgot to get you a present," he said ruefully.

"That's alright, Timothy," she said, giving him her best lovey-dovey look. "You're the best Valentine's present I ever got."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Sap," he scoffed.

She batted her eyelashes at him. "But, isn't that why ye love me so much?"

Tim's face softened. "It most certainly is, Aislinn Elizabeth," he said. "It most certainly is."

**Author's Note:**

> Tim O'Neill, Miguel Ortiz, Jonathan Ford and Nathan Brigder all were created by Rockne O'Bannon, and Amblin Productions, and currently belong to the Sci-Fi Channel. The song, 'A Kiss to Build a Dream On' is used without permission from MCA Records Inc. It was written by Bert Kalmer, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II, and is the version found on the 'Sleepless in Seattle' soundtrack.


End file.
